Page:Revolution and Other Essays.djvu/245




 * Keep ye the Law - be swift in all obedience.
 * Clear the land of evil, drive the road and bridge the ford.
 * Make ye sure to each his own
 * That he reap what he hath sown;
 * By the peace among Our peoples let men know we serve the Lord.

— And so it runs, from McAndrew's "Law, Order, Duty, and Restraint," to his last least line, whether of "The Vampire" or "The Recessional." And no prophet out of Israel has cried out more loudly the sins of the people, nor called them more awfully to repent.

"But he is vulgar, he stirs the puddle of life," object the fluttering, chirping gentlemen, the Tomlinsonian men. Well, and isn't life vulgar? Can you divorce the facts of life? Much of good is there, and much of ill; but who may draw aside his garment and say, "I am none of them"? Can you say that the part is greater than the whole? that the whole is more or less than the sum of the parts ? As for the puddle of life, the stench is offensive to you? Well, and what then? Do you not live in it? Why do you not make it clean? Do you clamor for a filter to make clean only your own particular portion? And, made clean, are you